Lessons with SPR
by Heckind0ne
Summary: Naru and Lin come back from England after a few months. Watch as SPR tackle many cases, which test Mai's blossoming abilities. Disclaimer: I do NOT own ghost hunt.
1. Chapter 1

It's been a few months since Naru and Lin left. A few months since Mai heard that fateful question, "Me or Gene?" Honestly, she was heartbroken, but she kind of expected a response like that from Naru.

Now here Mai was, on the bus on her way to Shibuya.

On her way to welcome back Naru and Lin.

*Flashback*

Mai was sitting at the kitchen table, doing her homework. With her weird job, Mai made it a point to keep up with school work. After all, being an orphan she can't expect much help from others.

She made it possible to keep everyone in touch after Naru's temporary leave. Ayako, Masako, and she would sometimes go shopping. Or they would all meet up with the guys for coffee.

They've come closer these past few months, and she for one does not regret (accidentally) knocking over that stupid bookshelf at the old school house (except maybe the part where she hurts Lin).

'I wonder when they'll come back' she sighs.

 _Bing, Bing_

The sound of her phone brought Mai out of her thoughts. She reaches to her phone and sees that she's gotten an email from Lin.

'Hello Taniyama-san, I am here to inform you that Oliver and I will be returning tomorrow, and would like to rehire everyone. We will all meet at Shibuya Cafe at 2:00 pm.

Sincerely, Lin Koujo.'

Mai read the message over and over, checking if her eyes were right, even going as far as to see if her reading glasses were clean. When she learned that it wasn't her imagination or a dream, she smiled.

'We're finally back in business'

*Flashback Over*

Now here she was, anxious to reunite with now _all_ of her SPR family. s was making sure she had Naru's and Lin's welcome back presents in her bag.

'Check, and Check!' she mentally cheered.

She was nearing the cafe and saw Yasu ahead of her.

"Oi, Yasu!" she exclaimed while waving like a madman.

"What's up little boss," he greets, "Sorry I couldn't come to the recent outing you guys had."

"It's alright, you are in college after all."

They both walk in together and see the gang is there already. Monk waves them over.

"Gosh, its soooo hot," Mai groans.

All of them murmur in agreement.

"Hello, Taniyama-san."

Mai jumps up quickly hug Lin, and pouts, "How many times do I have to tell you to call me Mai, hmmm?"

Lin felt awkward, unsure of how to react.

"Well," Ayako begins, "Fancy seeing you guys here, but I would love to order. We've waited long enough."

They all sat down and ordered their drinks while catching up with Naru and Lin.

"Oh, oh, oh!" everyone turns towards Mai, she just points at Naru and Lin, "I have presents!"

'As energetic as ever,' Naru thought.

She rummages through her bag until she finds the packages.

She takes out two neatly wrapped packages, one navy blue while the other is dark grey.

She hands the gray package to Lin and the blue package to Naru.

Both just stare at the packages, as if they were foreign objects from a far-off planet. They both look up to see her staring back at them hopefully.

"Well," she says expectantly, "Are you going to open them?"

"You didn't have to get us anything, Mai," Naru says.

She wags her pointer finger in front of their faces, "Kindness isn't refundable for Mai Taniyama."

"So open."

They both sigh, seeing as what's done is done. They both start to (neatly) open up their packages.

Lin peers into the box and slightly smiles.

"Do you like it?"

He can practically see the stars in her eyes and nods, "These are for the office I presume." He has received a Bamboo Calculator and a Desk Organizer.

"Oi Big boss, what'd you get?" Yasu inquires.

Naru takes out a leather-bound journal that has a clasp, and an engraved black pen.

"Wow, how'd you manage to get that Mai-san?" John asks.

"Yes Mai, they do look nice," Masako comments.

"Well I have a friend who owes me many favors, and she knows a guy that works for a stationery shop that has a bunch of nice looking Journals and Pens," she starts, "Sooooo, I got these for a great price."

"Man," Monk starts whining," Why didn't we get oooone."

"Isn't it obvious," Ayako begins haughtily, "No one professional as that would ever do business with you."

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean, you old hag."

WHACK

They all sigh, watching the scene unfold before them. 'Typical' they all thought.

Yasu looks at his watch, "Holy crap, has it really been that long?"

They all look at him curiously, "Eh?"

"It's already 5:00."

"Wow," Mai says, starting to pack up, "Then I have to start going before it gets too dark out."

All of them nod in agreement, it was pretty late.

They all walked out, saying their farewells.

Most of the adults left, Lin was heading out to get the van, so it was just Mai and Naru left.

"Oops," Mai says, while taking something out of her bag, "I almost forgot."

Naru turns to look at her, as she takes out a card. She stands in front of him while shoving the card into his hands.

"H-happy Late Birthday," she stutters while blushing, then quickly walks away.

Naru stands there shocked, then opens the card.

'Happy Birthday Idiot Scientist! Knowing you, I bet you hate big things for your birthday, so the presents I gave you were not for your birthday. This tiny card is. (Hehehe)

I want to apologize for what I said at the lake, it was uncalled for and emotions were running high because of well-everything.

So I'm sorry for putting that on you, especially at that time. But know this, you may not think it, but we all have your back.

Sincerely, Mai

P.S. You're not a bad guy Naru.'

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Hey guys, It's me cooleminem from Wattpad, I made an account here on FFNet. If you saw this up earlier, by any chance, ignore it because it was all corrupted so I'm praying this is gonna work.

Review, Favorite, whatever. Thank.

I wrote this thing when I was 14 and am barely rewriting this shit now that I'm 18. Ples have mercy.

So now its Heckind0ne, here on FFNet. Because I am **done** with corrupted files.


	2. Chapter 2

_Lake Nojiri, Shinano_

"I am Koizumi Hana, owner of the Ryokan over there, the one who called you over" a woman, a client of ours says, "This is the lake I was talking about, Lake Nojiri."

"Well you see, me and my family were hosting a community gathering to create more business for our Ryokan," Koizumi says, "Many people came, but something wasn't right, there was a sense of foreboding, no happiness. So I told my husband to go ahead with the children and swim, I wrote off that feeling as a simple stomach bug."

"Tell us what happened," Naru demanded.

Mai elbowed him, "I'm sorry, he has no manners, can you please tell us what happened that frightened everyone?"

She nodded curtly and turned her attention towards Mai. "Many of the children were standing around the dock, all preparing to jump, many of the parents were watching them, all of a sudden the children w-were _pulled_ ," shivering at the memory.

"Is that all?" Naru asks uninterested, "Are you sure they didn't jump in, like how they were _going_ to do."

"W-wait thats not all!" She exclaims, hastily pulling out a digital camera, "I have photographic proof that it wasn't the children."

"When we got to the children they were all crying hysterically, we asked them all what happened, all they said is they felt someone or _something_ pull them. We at first didn't believe them, saying they just slipped, and they all fell at the same time, like a domino effect."

"But then one of the parents noticed that on all of the children's foot, there was a handprint, the size of a grown person," she said, she hands the camera to Monk.

His eyes widen upon seeing the photos, he passes the camera to everybody else. The photos show many children's' legs, but close to their foot is a grown man's handprint.

"Did the children say anything else?" John asks politely.

" _He he,_ " Mai starts laughing nervously, "By any chance did they say that before they were pulled they felt something caress their foot."

Koizumi's eyes widen, "Yes, how did you know."

They all look at Mai, shocked that she knew.

"W-well the funny thing is," she says.

" _I can feel it right now_."

The moment those words left her mouth, Mai suddenly fell and hit the water with a violent splash.

"MAI," they all screamed.

Monk rushed forward to try and grab her, but she had disappeared beneath the surface of the water. Defeated, he got back up.

"She's gone."


	3. Chapter 3

_Lake Nojiri, Shinano_

" _She's gone. I-I can't see her_."

They all just stood there dazed, looking at the all too still water.

They see bubbles forming in the water and Mai breaks through the surface of the water, gasping for air.

Monk dashes forward grabbing her hand, using all his strength to hoist her up. The others rush forward to help.

Mai is shivering violently, coughing up water, as Monk puts her on the dock.

"We need to take her inside quick, she's in shock," Naru says calmly, as he motions for Monk to pick her up.

They start heading to the Ryokan near the lake, Koizumi already heading to the nearest room.

"We need to change her clothes, or else she'll get even sicker."

The men simply stare at her in response, until she realizes Mai is the only female.

"Please wait outside while I change her."

They all nod, stepping outside.

"So Naru-bou, are you taking the case?" Takigawa asks in a serious tone.

He nods in response.

A few minutes later, Koizumi opens the door, motioning that it's ok for them to come in.

"She'll have to rest for now," she says.

"W-will you be taking the case?" she shakily asks, " I mean-its ok if you don't want to after this happened, I can tr-"

"We accept your case we need 3 rooms," Naru cuts her off, "2 for lodging, and the third would be serving as our base."

"The woman looks surprised but happy that he accepted.

"Oh thank you, thank you," she says, bowing down in thanks.

"Oh, when should we come ma'am?" John asks cheerfully.

"What is convenient for you all?"

"Well the sooner we come, the sooner we get to close this case and prevent any dangerous accidents," Monk says.

"Then it's settled," Naru snaps his book shut, "We will come in 2 days. Does that sound about right to everyone?"

There were murmurs of agreement.

Mai started to stir only half an hour later. She looks around to see everyone waiting, confused and disoriented, she tries to get out of the bed.

"Woah Woah Woah," Monk says while pushing her down, "Don't get up too fast."

She glares in response. Monk flinches and steps away from Mai.

"Now Mai," John starts nervously, "You can't get up too fast, you'll just end up hurting yourself more."

Mai instantly calms down, not wanting to hurt the nice priest.

"I didn't get dragged down a well, did I?" She blearily asks.

"No, but rest for now," Monk begins, "As soon as you wake up, we'll leave to gather the others. And come back in 2 days time."

She lays back down, and sleepily mumbles, "m'kay."


	4. Chapter 4

She was floating in water, and she couldn't breathe. Every intake of air brought her closer to death.

She wasn't breathing.

 _Where's papa?_

Her body can't take it anymore.

 _'MAI WAKE UP'_

'H-huh?'

 _'GODAMMIT MAI WAKE UP'_

Mai bolted up from wherever she was, retching up nothing until she held her hand over her mouth to stop whatever was coming.

"Lin, pull over _now._ "

The moment they stopped Naru opened the car door. Mai quickly ran out to the side of the road.

Another van pulled over behind Lin's van. All of its occupants came running out to see why they've stopped.

Their eyes widen upon seeing Mai coughing up water.

"Why the hell is she coughing up water!?" Ayako demands, rushing over to Mai's side, patting her back.

"Everything was fine, until I looked over to Mai," Naru begins, "She stopped breathing, and her body temperature was dropping below normal levels. I tried waking her up, but then realized that she was having a first-person dream."

They were all worried about their brunette friend, she finally stopped coughing, but they can see her trembling.

Monk walked over to her, holding out a packet of tissues. She turns her head but hissed as she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head. She placed her hand over the lower part of her head and felt something warm.

Mai looked at her hand and saw blood.

Ayako gasped and told John to get her first aid kit. She started to check if Mai had a concussion.

She sighed in relief when she found out it was just a minor bump.

Ayako instructed Monk to take Mai to the van.

"Hey Mai," Monk whispers, "Can you say something?"

"C-coo...,"

"Huh?"

"I'm..."

"Cold."

Monk sighed in relief, "Well, I guess you're getting _my_ jacket."

She cracked a smile.

Once the wound was cleaned, everyone continued on towards the Ryokan.

For once in the car with Monk and Ayako, was quiet. They were both worried for Mai.

"Hoshou," Ayako began seriously, "Do you understand the gravity of what just happened?"

"This means Mai's powers are growing," he nodded with a faraway look, "Not only did Mai have the dream when we're off-site, but this time she brought back her injuries."

The others were listening intently to the conversation, trying to figure out what they meant.

"What do you guys mean?" Yasu asked, still not grasping the situation.

Monk's eyes flickered towards the young teenager, "For Mai to _barely_ start off as a normal assistant with no spiritual powers, then gradually end up with them, isn't as concerning."

"But," He continued, "To barely start off with no powers, and now being able to have a death dream when we're not on the property. Especially to bring back injuries _from her dream._ "

Monk paused.

Yasu finally understood.

"She's gaining _too much_ power at an alarming rate."

 ***With Naru, Lin and Mai***

Mai wasn't very scared about her dream (even though she was injured... and coughed up water _from_ her dream), no she was shaken up about the ordeal in general. It was extremely overwhelming but somewhat different than the last time she had a first person dream.

Once they started driving Naru started interrogating Mai about her dream.

She recounted the whole dream, even when she heard him calling. The only clue that the dream gave them was that someone died in the lake. Mainly a child.

"Sorry it wasn't much..." she mumbled sadly.

"It isn't like you could've gained much information in your situation," Naru reasoned.

"You sure?" She asked hopefully.

He sighed deeply, "Positive."

 ***About 2 hours later***

SPR finally arrived at their destination and climbed out of the vans.

They were given a tour of the Ryokan and were told that there wouldn't be many customers, and if they were to encounter customer to not make much of a scene.

"Monk, John, and Mai go and take temperatures around the Ryokan," Naru barked.

Naru turned towards Yasu, "Get me the history of this place along with death reports that could've triggered the activity."

"And finally Miss Matsuzaki and Miss Hara, go around and see if you sense anything."

And with that, they officially started to investigate the 'Nojiri Ryokan'.


	5. Chapter 5

SPR was sitting in base, waiting for something to happen.

Monk and Ayako were mulling over their conversation in the car, Naru was trying to figure out who the spirit could be, or at least what it wants, and everybody else, lounging around base.

They were told if they had any questions to ask Hana-san herself, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Mai, tea," Naru demanded.

"Hai hai..." she muttered.

Mai started on her way towards the kitchen, noting how empty the Ryokan is.

 _'I swear there were quite a few people here'_

She made it to the kitchen and sees it bustling with many chefs.

 _'What the hell is going on!?'_

She spots Hana-san and calls her over.

"What's going on Hana-san?"

"Oh were preparing for lunch, I was actually about to go and get you guys Mai-san," she replied cheerfully.

"Oh, I actually came here to make my boss some tea, if it's alright with you?"

She nods and points to the corner of the kitchen, "You can make your tea over there. If it isn't too much trouble, is it ok if you come down at around one o'clock?"

"Sure, Arigatou* Hana-san."

She starts preparing Naru's favorite, Earl Grey with a tiny bit of milk. She also prepares some for the others, thinking they might also want some.

She makes her way towards base, but suddenly stopped.

She felt as if someone was watching her. But, what was confusing was that her 'intuition' was saying she was still safe.

She started speed walking towards base, not wanting to get in trouble for trying to find the exact cause of this feeling.

By the time she made it to base she was panting from basically running.

Miraculously the tea survived.

The others eyed her warily, wondering why she burst into base as if she ran a marathon. All while closing the door carefully.

"Well..."Mai began, "That was strange...and confusing."

"Huh?" John asks while tilting his head.

While handing out the tea she began to explain, "When I was walking back I felt as if someone was watching me," she paused to see Naru already beginning to take notes, "But I wasn't feeling threatened."

"I was confused because usually when someone feels watched they get scared, but I actually wanted to find the cause. BUT knowing Naru I'd get into a lot of trouble for going off on my own," she explains.

"Also it would be twice the punishment because I had the tea," She admits while blatantly looking at Naru.

Naru glares in response.

The others smile and laugh at that.

Mai's eyes widen as she remembered something important, "Oh! Hana-san said to go down at one o'clock so we can have lunch."

"Oh that's great, I was starting to get a little hungry," Monk cheers.

All of them have small talk until around one o'clock. They start heading over to the dining room to eat and see there are quite a bit of people.

"I'm guessing many people here are tourists," Monk states, "Because if I lived near here, I would probably not come if I heard what happened."

"I kinda hope that's not the case," Mai says, "I don't want to deal with random questions."

"Geez Mai, you're starting to sound like _that_ one," Yasu says while pointing towards Naru.

 _That_ one glares at Yasu.

They all make look around to see where they can be seated until they see Hana-san waving like a madman.

"MAI-CHAN OVER HERE," she bellows.

They all quickly walk to Hana-san, considering people were starting to stare and whisper.

"Mai-chan I kept a table open for all of you," she says cheerfully, then asked, "Would it be ok if my family sat with you?"

"Of course."

They all sat down and started having small talk.

"So are you the ghost hunters?" Hana-san's son bluntly ask.

Hana-san gasped and hit her son in the back of the head

"That was rude Yoshiro," she hissed.

The boy looked down, ashamed and mumbled his apologies.

Mai chuckled and waved her hand, "It's alright, I don't blame him for being curious. It's what got me here."

The boy looks up at Mai hopefully, "So you are!"

Mai nods and holds up her finger to her mouth, "But shhhhh! It's a secret."

The boy giggles and mimics Mai, "Shhh!"

"Onee-chan do you have any super cool powers!?" The little boy whispers.

Mai slowly shakes her head and points towards the others, "I don't think so...well not as cool as them..."

Monk holds up his hand to stop Mai from saying more and looks at Hana-san's son, "First off, do _not_ listen to her." He shoots a glare at Mai, "Her super cool powers is what gets us through cases."

The little boy is happy to hear that, everyone can see him bouncing in his seat, "Nee-chan wanna play with me later!?"

"Now now Yoshiro, they have work to do. She won't be able to play with you," Hana-san reasons.

"B-but..." his bottom lip started to quiver.

"Ah ah, it's ok," Mai tried to reason with the boy, "You have to ask my boss nicely, and he might let us."

"Who?"

Monk points towards Naru, "He may be young, but he's an excellent boss," he then whispered, "But you can call him Naru."

The boy nodded and started talking to Naru. Throughout to whole 'conversation'(Naru just nodding or shaking his head) with the little boy, Mai shot glares towards her boss as to say 'You better not make him cry or else'.

Yoshiro was bouncing in excitement from the outcome of their 'conversation'. "Did you hear that, nee-chan? We get to play with each other," He whispered.

They all stopped talking as their food was set down in front of them.

Most of the SPR crew were going to stay up until midnight because spiritual activity always happened later on in the night. So many of them were going to take small naps, Mai was the first to be sent to her room. After all, she can gather more information when she's sleeping.

Mai skipped to the door, happy to be given a break from Naru's incessant calls for tea.

"Mai," Naru stops her from leaving, "Do not forget we set up a camera in each of our rooms."

"Hai hai," she waves him off.

 _'Night Night!'_

 ***In Base with Rest of SPR Crew***

It has already been about 20 minutes since Mai went to take a nap (gather info).

"Naru," Lin swivelled around to look at his charge, "A rapid temperature drop in the room Mai is in."

Naru pinched the bridge of his nose, _'Can she be any more danger prone?'_

"Enhance the video feed."

Everybody crowded around the screen, they didn't understand what they were seeing. She was sound asleep unaware of the danger in the room, but the end of the bed dipped as if someone was sitting on the edge.

"What the hell..." Monk trailed off.

So they watched, as it inched closer to Mai. The dip in the bed disappeared for a moment.

Then appeared right next to her.

Monk and John started to go for the door.

"Wait," Naru stopped them.

They both looked at him curiously.

"If it wanted to hurt her it would've done so by now."

They stopped, albeit hesitantly.

"Will all of you shut up," Ayako snapped at them. "I hear something."

"Lin turn up the audio."

They all huddled together behind Naru and Lin.

Then they heard it.

 _"She has pretty hair."_


	6. Chapter 6

" _She has pretty hair_ ," a child giggled.

They all froze and stared wide-eyed as Mai's hair was suddenly lifted.

They could not see the spirit, making it appear as if her hair was suspended mid-air.

"Haru ga kita, haru ga kita*," he hums.

Many of their jaws dropped in awe as the spirit began to braid a locket of Mai's hair. The childish spirit never once acknowledged the fact that it was being seen by the camera.

Knock Knock

All at once, the temperature started to return to normal and Mai's hair dropped.

Knock Knock Knock

"Ano, Mai-chan are you in here?" A muffled voice called out.

They heard the door open and close as someone stepped into their room. Hana-san appeared on camera as she shuffled closer to Mai, then began to back out as she saw Mai asleep.

"I guess I'll just have to ask later," she mumbled to herself as she left.

The door shut, and everyone just stared dazedly at the screen.

"W-whaa..." Ayako intelligently said.

Monk stalked out of base, and muttered, "First she gets attacked, and now she's all buddy-buddy with Casper the friendly ghost."

They all sat down and waited for Monk to return, none attempting to stop him. They all wanted Mai to be near them.

A few minutes later, Monk and Mai trudged into base, he had both hands on her shoulders, while Mai rubbed her eyes childishly. He led her to the couch in base and sat her down.

"Stay," he ordered.

She tried to run a hand through her hair, only to have her hand get stuck in a... braid.

She looked up at Monk and scrutinized him. She scooted closer to Masako holding her hand over the braid, looking over at Monk with a horrified expression, "You old pervert."

They all sweatdropped at Mai's conclusion, except for Monk who went to go sulk in the corner.

"Mai."

She turned to look at Naru, he was holding out headphones much like Lin's and indicating for her to come to sit near him.

"Is it my shift?" She asked. "It doesn't feel like it's been 2 hours."

Naru simply ignored her.

She grumbled something about narcissistic bosses and sat near Naru. She took the headphones from him and looked at him expectantly.

"Watch."

"Rude," she muttered darkly as she swiveled towards the screen.

"Wait..." Mai slowly turned around once she finished the video.

"What just happened?" Mai looked at all of them confused.

"On the upside, we've now confirmed that the spirit is a child," Yasu cheerfully says, "Downside, we are now severely confused."

"How bout' you Big Boss, whaddya think?"

"I need more evidence," he begins, "Although, it is most likely that there is not one but two spirits. Whether the spirits are site bound is still to be determined."

"Yasuhara, what were your findings from your research?" Naru demanded.

"Sadly, there isn't much," he starts, "For one, over the years, there were no deaths that matched both Mai's attack or dream, all the owners/families of this Ryokan had natural deaths. Since no clues came up by simply looking into the Ryokan, I looked through the _town's_ newspapers for the past 50 years."

Yasu rummaged through his notebook and took out a newspaper article. He cleared his throat, " _Tragedy Strikes Lake Nojiri', today was supposed to be a jovial day, until a boy at the age of 8 drowned in Lake Nojiri. Witnesses reported that they were there to enjoy a community outing."_

" _All was fine, up until the children decided to go for a swim, none of them were careful on the docks. When the boy was running along the dock, he slipped. While his body was falling, his head hit the dock and he hit the water. Sadly, he was dead by the time they pulled his body outside of the water._ "

"I looked further," he shakes his head, "But I didn't get much. Although, the strange thing is that the boy was never associated with this Ryokan."

Naru's eyes scrunched up in confusion.

"What do you mean 'not associated with this Ryokan'?" Mai asks.

 _"It means that the boy never lived or stayed here."_

* * *

 _Haru ga kita - translated means Spring is coming, Spring is Coming_


	7. Chapter 7

"So Hana-san, why exactly did you buy this Ryokan?" Mai curiously asks as she helps Yoshiro build a toy spaceship.

"As they were debriefing possible causes of the spirit with Yasu's revelations, Koizumi and Yoshiro came in to ask Mai on a ' _play date_ '.

Needless to say, there is a jealous brooding narcissist inside base, along with the 6 unfortunate souls who must deal with his temper tantrum.

"Oh please, call me Koizumi."

"O-oh," she stuttered, "In that case, whenever you call me by my first name, please drop the honorific."

"My husband and I met in a different country," she began, "I'm from the U.S."

"One day, he was traveling and we met," She chuckled with a faraway look, "Strangest man I have ever seen at that time. He was so _polite_ and _hot_. You don't really find men like that where I'm from so I _went_ for it."

Mai coughed awkwardly in response.

"And you know," Koizumi had a devious look on her face, "That day I knew that..."

She leaned over to whisper in Mai's ear, "I wanted to have his babies."

Mai blushed so hard and began to choke on nothing. She hugged Yoshiro, hoping he wouldn't hear anything his mother was saying. Yoshiro happily returned the hug.

Koizumi was laughing so hard that tears ran down her face, while Mai glared at the older woman. Yoshiro just cluelessly sat there hugging Mai.

"Ha ha," Mai awkwardly laughed along, "L-let's _not_ talk about _that._ "

Koizumi eventually calmed down and apologized. "I just couldn't pass up the opportunity, and the look on your face was worth it."

She scooted closer to Mai and whispered, "Although, if you hadn't reacted, I would've continued."

Mai punched her in the arm and scooted away. "I swear, weird perverted woman," she muttered.

"Well, that's basically the story of how I met him. I knew he wouldn't be able to stay that long, and I was gaining my business major at the time. So he asked me to come here, and build a business with him."

"I wanted to make a place that made people happy," she explained with a wistful look. "The look of happiness on families' faces when they're bonding is satisfying."

Mai smiled softly in response, knowing that making others happy is satisfying.

"Luckily, this Ryokan was quite cheap and in good shape. The daughter of the last owner put this place up for grabs because she decided to move to a different country."

Mai raised her eyebrows at that, Yasu didn't really talk about the previous owner in detail.

"Ne, ne, onee-san," the child began, "Did he visit you too?"

"Who?" She inquired.

"The boy!"

Mai was extremely confused, she believed Yoshiro was the only child in this Ryokan right now.

"I don't know who you mean..."

He began to recount all his night escapades with a child around his age. They always played with his cars or spaceships when his parents put him to bed.

Mai curiously looks over to Koizumi, only to see her looking at her son with a baffled expression.

"Are you sure that's true sweetie?" She questioned. "I know there weren't any children staying near your room, could it be an imaginary friend?"

Mai didn't say anything, choosing to consider what he's saying.

"No! I'm not lying," he snapped at his mother.

Her eyes widened. "How bout' telling us his name?"

"He goes by Aki-kun!" The boy exclaimed happily.

"And why haven't you told me of Aki-kun before?" His mother inquired.

He puts his finger to his mouth, "Shh!"

"He doesn't want anyone to know," he whispered conspicuously while leaning in real close to them. He bounced right back and said, "But I think it's ok if it's onee-chan and okaa-san."

Mai narrowed her eyes, ' _Why do I get the feeling this isn't a simple imaginary friend_ ', out loud, she asked, "When did Aki-kun start to visit you?"

"After we moved here."

"And how old is he?" She asked.

"Eight!"

He jumped into Mai's lap, "Don't worry! He's like a guardian angel."

Mai's arms circle around the child, "And why do you say that?"

He shifted in Mai's lap to look at her, "He told me he protected me and my friends at the Lake."

Both their eyes widened, Mai hesitantly asked, "Why would he say that?"

The little boy scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, "He said because we wouldn't have made it out alive."

Mai immediately recalled Yasu's findings and her dream, ' _Where's_ _papa_?'

"W-why are you saying things like that Yoshiro!?" The mother demanded, horrified that her child was talking about something so morbid.

This goes way beyond a simple imaginary friend,'/em the mother fearfully thought.

"But I'm not lying! I swear," He jumped out of Mai's lap and insisted.

Mai simply put her hand on the woman's arm, and said, " I don't think what he's saying is a lie."

The boy then points at Mai, "See! She knows I'm right," he stubbornly says.

Mai leaned in real close to the mother as he said that, and whispered, "I believe in him, children tend to be more spiritually sensitive. Don't worry, as long as we're here, we will do everything in our power to protect your son."

Koizumi took a deep breath to calm herself and slowly nodded her head, "O-ok..."

"Excuse me," Koizumi cleared her throat and stood up, "I have to get back to work. I'll take Ryo to his room."

"Oh, why don't I do that?" Mai suggested. "You just go."

Koizumi looked unsure at that, but once she saw the demanding look on Mai's face she gave in.

Once, Koizumi gave them the directions to the boy's room, she went on her way. Mai took hold of the boy's hand and began walking to his room. They talked about anything from his studies to his favorite hobbies and toys. And in no time, they made it to his room.

Mai helped put away Ryo's toys while he changed into his pajamas. After all was done, she tucked him in and made sure to stay until he fell asleep.

She made her way back to base, with one stop to the kitchen to make some drinks.

'I better take him some tea, or else he's going to go further into his fit,'/em Mai mused.

"Mai entered base and immediately heard a collective sigh of relief.

She swung her eyes to the 'perpetrator', " _What did you do to them?_ " she questioned testily.

Monk rushed over to Mai and 'weeped' into her shoulder, "He's a monster Mai!" he wailed.

Mai hastily put her tray down and patted the weeping Monk's head. Noting that no one was correcting her statement, even John had a miserable look on his face.

Her glare intensified, and she repeated her question.

"I was only doing my job," Naru snapped back, "Unlike these idiots."

Her eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "Oh, I don't know, maybe if you actually asked _nicely,_ once in a while, then they would probably do what they're told," she replied sarcastically.

"And why would I do that?"

"Nooooo, my head already hurts too much," Monk groaned out painfully.

Mai growled, "Ok, you know what," she began, "Everybody _except_ Naru, do one last sweep, then _head to bed_."

She pointed at Lin, who was typing away on his laptop, "You too, _Lin._ "

They all got up and ran out of the room. They didn't want to get caught up in between Naru and Mai.

Both stared each other down, no one was backing down. The tension within the room was palpable. Naru hated how nothing was in his control now, and Mai hated how whenever something didn't go his way, he ended up pushing people away.

Mai slowly picked up her tray and set it down in front of Naru. She stood in front of him with her hand on her hip, she sighed, "Honestly Naru, do you not realize that we are not you?"

Naru opened his mouth but was cut off by Mai.

"We all love our job, and we love working with each other. The best part is, we get to work with _Naru_ , not just Oliver Davis."

Naru immediately recalled something said in his birthday card given to him by Mai, ' _You're not a bad guy_.'

"I'm sorry," he murmured quickly. He didn't want to be lectured.

Mai's eyes widened, "What was that? I didn't hear you."

Naru glared at her seeing the mischievous spark in her eyes. "You heard me."

She pouted, "No fun."

"Retrieve the papers Yasu was looking at," he 'smiled', "It seems to me that _you_ are stuck with _me_."

'Oh to all the gods that exist, what have I done?' she thought to the gods.

She sat down to begin reading over the files but shot up as she remembered Yoshiro's words.

She turned to Naru, "I think Yoshiro is being protected by the child spirit."

He took out his notebook and raised an eyebrow, "Continue."

"He first asked me if the little boy visited me and played with me. Apparently, the child spirit frequently visits Yoshiro to play at night and his name is Aki-kun."

"And why do you believe that it's a spirit? It could simply be an imaginary friend."

"Well yes, that was a thought, but then he said something rather concerning," she said.

"He said that without Aki-kun, the children wouldn't have made it out of the Lake alive," she revealed.

Naru sat there and continued to note down the new information. He quickly snapped shut his notebook.

"Continue to look over the files," he ordered.

So they sat there in base reading over file after file. Not realizing both drifted closer to each other as time passed.

Now, both were next to each other on the sofa, papers were strewn across the floor and table. Both were tired but relentlessly pushed forward for some more clues.

Without realizing, Mai was slowly nodding off, Naru realized when her head kept bumping into his shoulder.

The papers fell to the floor as she finally succumbed to sleep, and laid on the boy's shoulder. Naru looked at her and sighed, he carefully reached for his cup of tea only to find it empty.

Unknowingly, he wasn't far off from Mai. And as she snuggled closer, he realized he was getting too comfortable. At one point, while reading he was leaning his head on Mai's.

Sooner or later, both teens were now snuggled up against each other. Mai was now on Naru's lap, while Naru had his arm encircled around Mai's waist. All thoughts about files were forgotten.

Eventually, the SPR crew were beginning to wake up and do their daily routines. Lin and Monk (surprisingly) got up earlier than everybody and were on their way to base. Both were chatting about what happened yesterday. Monk was excited, his head was about to burst with all his bizarre ideas.

"Maybe she made him sleep on the floor."

He was practically running to base, and when they saw the door Lin stopped him with a warning look.

Monk pouted, and put his hands up in surrender, "Alright alright, I'll be quiet."

Monk slowly opened the door, then quickly shut it. Lin raised an eyebrow. Monk looks him straight in the eye, "Maybe I need some more sleep."

Lin rolled his eyes and went ahead of Monk. Monk stood off to the side with his arms crossed, waiting for Lin's reaction.

Lin slowly opened the door, and quickly shut it. Monk's jaw dropped, he had never seen Lin look so confounded. Lin's eyes were wide—so WIDE!—, and his jaw was practically on the floor.

Lin then took a deep breath to calm himself and opened the door once more. He looked back at Monk, "Takigawa, _take_ _pictures_."

Both nodded, determined to make it their life's goal to document this monumental moment.

The moment that Mai and Naru were snuggled up against each other.


	8. Chapter 8

She snuggled in further into her moving, hard pillow.

Her eyes furrowed in confusion, _'Is my pillow...breathing?'_ Then, she slowly became aware of bright flashes and giggles.

"Shoot, they're waking up," someone whispered hurriedly.

Mai's eyes cracked open to see the whole SPR crew looming near the couch. They were all staring at her amusedly.

 _'Why are they look at me like that?'_ She wondered. She was then brought back to the fact that she felt something moving next to here. She slowly turned to see the sleeping face of Oliver Davis, aka Naru.

 _'Oh... that's why,'_ she thought stupidly.

"Oh dear, I think she's in shock," Ayako whispered, as they watched Mai freeze at the sight of a sleeping Naru.

"Maybe she's still half asleep," Monk whispered, "We can get more material if she falls back to sleep."

Mai then shot up, her legs tangling with the blanket and Naru. She fell off the couch bringing the blanket and Naru down with her.

 _Thud_

Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of a half-asleep aggravated Naru straddling a red-faced Mai.

 _CLICK_

Everyone turned to see Monk and Lin with either a phone or camera. Mai took the chance to get away from Naru, kicking him in the process. "Excuse me while I go and walk off the face of this planet," she squeaked in embarrassment, then proceeded to run out of the room with a resounding bang of the door slamming shut.

Everyone turned to Naru, who was clutching his stomach in pain, _"What just happened?"_ He demanded as he glared at everyone.

20 minutes later, after an intense speech to persuade Mai out of the room, everyone was seated in base. The tension was strong in the room as the brunette angrily ignored everyone.

"Oh come on Mai," Yasu said exasperatedly. "We _all_ saw it coming, there is no reason for you to be embarrassed."

She glared at Yasu in response while Ayako whacked him in the back of the head.

"H-how about you guys tell us what you guys found?" John said, trying to defuse an oncoming argument. He motioned to all the papers near the couch, desk and mini table, thinking that maybe they found something.

He then stopped, his hand hovering over a heavily marked picture on the table in front of him.

He picked it up and showed it to Naru and Mai, "So this is what you found?" He inquired.

Mai peers at Naru curiously, "We found something? I thought we didn't find anything helpful."

Naru's eyes narrow at the sight of the heavily marked article. "Mai _look closely to what's written_."

They all then look closely at the markings.

 _'Papa papa papa papa.'_ Was written all over the margins of the paper.

"Mai, do you remember writing this _at all_?" Naru sharply asks.

She shakes her head in response, "All I remember is reading so much and then slowly falling asleep. Other than that I don't remember a single thing."

"Well, the writing is certainly an intriguing mystery. But I think we should really focus on what's circled," Yasu says.

It was a photo of a group of people, and a tall man with short hair was circled repeatedly.

"Question is: Why did you write this Mai?" Yasu asked while looking at Mai curiously.

"I told you guys! I don't remember writing it," she insists.

"But this looks like your handwriting."

Most begin to crowd around Yasu and find that it is written in Mai's signature script. On the other hand, Naru wonders why Mai doesn't remember what she wrote and found.

Mai's confused as to why she doesn't remember, but she chalks it up to her being tired. At least they finally have information on the possible perpetrator of all the attacks.

Everybody turns towards Naru as he begins to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going? Y-you can't just leave right now," Mai says, flustered by the fact that he _always_ disappears on cases.

"I need to go confirm something. Continue with your normal duties," he says calmly as he opens the door. "Oh, and Mai?"

"Y-yes," she replies nervously.

"Don't do anything stupid."

And with that, the door shut and silence ensued.


	9. Chapter 9

"T-That jerk!" a red-faced Mai yelled.

She began to pace around, "Why does he always have to be so-so INFURIATING!?" The others watch with amusement.

"Now now Mai, you know how Naru is," he says, attempting to placate Mai.

"He's right Mai, by the time Naru comes back we'll probably be finished with the case. Best thing to do right now is to continue to monitor this place," Monk says.

"Wow-who knew you could say something sensible," Ayako mocks.

Monk turns towards Ayako, and angrily asks, "What'd you say, you old WITCH!?"

 _THWACK_

***************Time Skip********************

It was after lunchtime, the crew was sitting in Base since there was no activity occurring when they hear a small knock on the door.

 _Knock_ _knock_.

Mai got up to open the door and smiled upon seeing Yoshiro has come to visit them. She crouched down, "Hey Yoshiro, what's up?"

"I wanted to see you so we can go play with my toys," he cheerfully says.

Mai turns to the others to ask if she could go, but she already sees them shooing her away.

"Okay let's go," she says, taking hold of Yoshiro's hand.

They make it to Yoshiro's room and begin playing together. As they were playing together, the room begins to gradually get colder. At first, Mai doesn't notice it, but soon enough she realizes something is wrong. Without alarming Yoshiro, she picks him up. Her eyes dart around the room as she slowly walks back to the door. She takes her walkie-talkie and radios in, "Guys there's something wrong in Yoshiro's room, please hurry."

Rather than receive a response in return, static is all that is heard.

"Crap. What's the point of these things if they span _don't_ work?"

She tries to open the door but quickly realizes that it won't budge. ' _God, I hope they at least got my message_.'

She slowly turns as she feels as if someone is watching her. To her horror she sees a black mist forming in the corner of the room. She quickly put Yoshiro down behind her and begins to chant.

" _Naumaku sanmanda bazaradankan_."

The more she chants the darker the energy becomes. She feels its hatred and anger, yet she can also feel a deep sadness.

 _Thump. Thump_.

She frantically chants as she realizes that it's creeping closer to them. Feeling scared, Yoshiro snuggles closer to Mai.

 _Thump. Thump._

 _"Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen."_

Instead of dissipating as Mai hoped, the energy seemed to grow angrier.

To her relief, she hears someone banging on the door. "Mai! Open up!" Naru exclaims.

"I can't! Naru, hurry! There's something in here!"

"Move away from the door!" Monk orders.

Mai quickly moves to the side of the door with Yoshiro and continues to chant.

Suddenly, the energy dissipates as Naru and the others break through. Ayako shoves her way through to check up on Mai and Yoshiro. Monk and John continue to look around the room, in case the energy manifests again.

"Come on," she ushers them away, "Let's head to base."

"Why in the world were you alone with Yoshiro? Without my permission," Naru angrily asks.

"Do not start with me Naru," she sasses back. "You literally left us alone, and there wasn't anything going on I decided to play with Yoshiro."

Naru pinches the bridge of his nose as he sighs heavily, "What happened?" He demands.

She recounts everything from when the spirit manifested to when the others arrived.

"Strangely, although the energy felt incredibly angry and hateful, I could feel a deep, lingering sadness," Mai says.


	10. Chapter 10

Hey guys,

sorry if the ending is lacking in pretty much everything. Took me four years to think of _something_. But I hope it's enough for yall

Enjoy!

* * *

 _Mai is looking at a man, who is frantically searching for someone amongst a crowd. She looks around and realizes she's dreaming because all she sees are the people, there are no surroundings, only darkness._

 _"My son! Where is my son?"_

 _The scene warps to the same man, who is in a dark suit, standing in the center of funeral goers. He is openly weeping._

 _"We're sorry for your loss."_

 _The scene disappears, all Mai sees is darkness, but she can still hear._

 _"I realize you lost your son, but you need to move on. You can't be going on like this."_

 _'How dare you. How dare they.'_

 _'How could I ever_ _forget_ _my own son.'_

 _'I hate you. I hate them.'_

 _'I'm so tired.'_

Mai shoots up, gasping for air. An image of a noose flashes through her mind. She looks around and realizes she's in the girl's bedroom.

 _I need to go and tell Naru._

She quietly slips out of bed and heads towards base. Once there, she sees that Naru is the only one that's still up and about.

Naru assesses Mai and motions to the couch, "Tell me."

Mai sits down and takes a deep breath before recounting her whole dream. "Thank god I couldn't feel what he did, I know for sure he hung himself," she says as she lightly touches her throat.

"Mai, go back to your room and rest. Tomorrow this case will be over."

Mai shakes her head, "No. I'll stay here," she resolutely says.

Naru sighs, "As you wish, but if you are going to be here, you are going to write down the dreams you've had so far." He gives her a notebook and a pen.

Mai pouts in response, "Fine." Right now she'll do anything to rid her mind of her recent dream.

*****************************Time skip**************************

In the morning, Mai wakes up somehow in her room. _How did I get here?_ She quickly gets up and gets ready.

"We were wondering when you would wake up, sleepyhead," Monk says as Mai enters base. It seems everybody was waiting for her to go and eat breakfast.

"Sorry guys," she mumbles.

Monk ruffles her hair, "Don't worry about it. We heard from Naru that you had quite the dream last night."

"Let's go," Naru orders. "I discovered some information based on Mai's dream."

They all quickly head to the dining room, once there they see Yoshiro waving happily.

"Over here!" He cheerily exclaims. Luckily, the ordeal from yesterday hasn't affected his cute, cheerful character.

When there is a lull in the conversation, Nare begins, "As of now, there are two spirits, both are male, but one is a child. The identities of the spirits are an Akihiko Sasaki and Tsutomo Sasaki."

He pauses and looks towards Yoshiro, now sitting on Mai's lap, "It's best if we take this conversation back to base."

The others nod in understanding, not wanting to expose the kid to anything terrifying.

********Time Skip( bitches finished eating)******************8

"Tsutomo Sasaki," Naru begins, "Was Akihiko's father. His wife died during childbirth, thus, Tsutomo raised Akihiko alone. After the death of Akihiko, he fell into a depression and soon committed suicide here in this Ryokan."

"Wait," Monk starts, "if that's the case, why didn't Yasu find out about that?"

"It was covered up, apparently the last owner didn't want the news of the death to affect his business," he replied.

"I contacted the daughter of this last owner to inquire whether anything mysterious happened after Tsutomo's suicide," he says, "apparently, after his death, there were small occurrences of things moving inexplicably and people falling into the lake. Specifically, she recalls her fathers falling into the lake. Soon after, he fell ill and passed away in his sleep."

"Dear god," Ayako mutters.

"All this begs the question to why both spirits haven't passed on," Naru says.

"And the answer is rather simple," he starts, "Emotions."

"What?" Yasu asks, confused at how that is preventing the spirits from passing on.

"As we all know after one dies, they are usually able to pass over by going into the light," he begins, " signifying that one has come to peace with their death. Yet, when spirits stay they usually have an attachment to the living world or wish to stay because of a goal of theirs, they aren't at peace. They themselves are preventing themselves from passing over."

"In some ways," he continues, "this case is similar to the Dollhouse case. But, the child hasn't passed on. We would believe that once Tsutomo died, his spirit would be able to sense his child and they would be able to happily pass over."

Monk hums, "So what you're saying that Tsutomo's emotions are clouding his senses."

Naru nods in agreement, "Yes, the hatred and sadness prevent him from sensing his son. Akihiko must've realized that his father couldn't communicate with him and was beginning to hurt others, so he took it upon himself to become a guardian of sorts."

"So what do you propose Naru?" John asks.

"A seance," he replies quickly, "Miss Hara, would you be opposed to a seance?"

"I will be fine," she says, with her sleeve close to her mouth.

"Good. Tonight we end this."

It was rather difficult, but Koizumi did it. She had to send all her guests away. The team asked her to send them away in case if activity arises and harms the guests.

"We'll be taking our leave now," Koizumi says, holding Yoshiro and a bag. "If anything happens do not hesitate to call me."

"See you soon!" Mai says.

After everyone was done with their preparations, they all gathered in the empty dining room because of its large space.

They all gathered around a table with a couple of lit candles. Lin was standing to the side with a night vision camera to capture the activity.

Naru nods towards Masako, "Let's begin."

"Everybody please hold hands, under no circumstances do you break the circle during the seance," Masako begins.

She takes a deep breath, "We call upon the spirit of Tsutomo Sasaki. Please answer my call, we mean you no harm. You have permission to enter my body to communicate."

Everybody waits with bated breath, all are holding each other's hands tightly. Suddenly, the candlelight flickers and Masako hunches forward and begins to breathe erratically.

She takes multiple deep breaths then glares up, "Who the hell are you?" She coldly asks.

"Tsutomo Sasaki," Naru begins, "You are dead and have been for a while. Why are you harming innocent people?"

"Innocent? Innocent?" He harshly asks.

"They were never _innocent_. They deserve to suffer as I have. After the death of my son, they treated me like glass. Never once did they ask if I was okay. Soon enough, they began to tell me to _get over it_."

"They had the fucking nerve to tell me to _get over it_ ," he says angrily.

Throughout his monologue, the temperature was steadily rising and the table and chairs began to shake.

He looked around at each member and spit out, "Fuck you."

All at once the ground began to rumble and the tables around them began to rattle violently.

"Sir! Please stop!" Mai pleads. "You deserve to pass on. All this conflict and hurt won't put your soul to rest. You _need_ to move on."

"Don't tell me what to do!" He roars and shoots up from his seat.

Monk and John hold onto her tightly to keep the circle closed. She continues to thrash between their hands, snarling at their attempts to call her down.

"What about your son!?" Mai roars.

The activity and Masako all go still. Masako is breathing heavily and glares up at Mai.

"My son is gone," he whispers brokenly.

Mai tears up at his response, he sounded so broken and resigned. "No-no he isn't. He's been here all along Tsutomo. He's here and he misses his papa."

Mai doesn't realize but she's slowly beginning to lose energy as Aki manifests next to her.

"Papa!" he desperately yells.

"I'm right here, please look at me," he pleads.

Masako turns sharply and begins to cry, "My son. My dear son," he weeps.

Aki runs towards Masako and envelopes her in a bright light. Tsutomo breaks away from Masako's body and hugs his son. The light gets brighter and brighter then dissipates.

Both Mai and Masako slump forward and collapse. Everybody rushes towards the both of them and realize they are unconscious and unharmed.

Mai was in her empty dream world with Masako, they were both sitting down.

"W-where are we?" Mai stutters out.

"I believe we are projecting," Masako replies.

"Huh," Mai mutters, contemplating how it was possible for Masako to be with her if that were true.

Suddenly, they hear a male voice whisper, " _Thank you."_

Masako and Mai turn to each other and smile faintly. Gradually, they both begin to fade.

With that, the case was over with a happy ending.


End file.
